TV News: “Party Down” Star Leaves, Robin Williams, “10 Things I Hate About You”
– “Party Down” fans got a dose of bad news this week as sources confirmed that Jane Lynch will not be able to appear during the show’s second season. Jane Lynch, whose memorable turns in recent comedies like “The 40 Year-Old Virgin” and “Role Models” helped her catapult to stardom among the genre’s diehards, is a principle on new FOX series “Glee” and will thus be unable to continue appearing on the quirky Starz comedy.
Lynch was part of the ensemble cast (the rest of which will be back for season two) of “Party Down,” a Starz original comedy that follows a group of Hollywood hopefuls and washouts who work for a catering company. Jennifer Coolidge began appearing in the final episodes of the first season and will presumably continue as a replacement for Lynch–the ten episode second season bows next year.
– Robin Williams will tape a comedy special for HBO during his “Weapons of Self-Destruction” tour. The special will tape in November for a December airing.
– “10 Things I Hate About You” scored 1.6 million viewers for its debut episode on ABC Family Tuesday. According to ABC Family, it was television’s top primetime telecast for female teenagers and females 12-34 on Tuesday.
The premiere’s total viewership nonetheless fell far short of the recent premiere numbers for “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” and “Make it or Break It” (ratings for both shows have declined in the past two weeks, but the two series remain strong performers by ABC Family ratings standards).
